fledge1 wrote:We are currently talking about doing this with our kids now too. Kinda getting fed up with schools. We looked into Maize Virtual Prep School, which is based out of Kansas but not sure how good it is. Anyone heard of it or use it?

My husband has a co-worker whose wife/family uses it and I think they're really happy with it. However, I know that the wife is a former schoolteacher and is able to come up with all sorts of projects and such to supplement everything that they do online. I know I personally got scared off hearing that online schooling is probably the worst out of the homeschool, private school, public school, online school options. I think you have to make sure you're really checking up on your kids to make sure they're learning what they're supposed to be learning.

fantasia_kitty wrote:I know I personally got scared off hearing that online schooling is probably the worst out of the homeschool, private school, public school, online school options. I think you have to make sure you're really checking up on your kids to make sure they're learning what they're supposed to be learning.

Yeah for fun I looked into it more. There is a two year waiting period anyway.

I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun: not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else. -C.S. Lewis

fledge1 wrote:We are currently talking about doing this with our kids now too. Kinda getting fed up with schools.

fledge1 wrote:Yeah for fun I looked into it more. There is a two year waiting period anyway.

The HSLDA has a list of homeschool organizations in Kansas, I'm sure they could offer a lot of advice and info about various homeschooling options in your area. https://hslda.org/content/orgs/?State=KSAlso, there is a homeschool conference in Kansas City. If you have doubts, questions, want to look at various curriculum options, etc. I'd definitely encourage you to go. Homeschool conventions are awesome! You get so much inspiration and info as well as browsing so many resources, materials and curricula. Just a warning, though, if you've never been to one, homeschoolers get really excited about homeschooling! And it can be contagious.

The modern world has a lot of opportunities for homeschooling. The internet is full of programs and tasks for those who want their children to gain some knowledge at school. Here is the article about the app for remote studying. It allows making remote communication between students, parents, and teachers. The scale of statistics is rather convenient so it's easy to watch after your child's study process.

Anfinwen wrote:Also, there is a homeschool conference in Kansas City. If you have doubts, questions, want to look at various curriculum options, etc. I'd definitely encourage you to go. Homeschool conventions are awesome! You get so much inspiration and info as well as browsing so many resources, materials and curricula. Just a warning, though, if you've never been to one, homeschoolers get really excited about homeschooling! And it can be contagious.

Thanks for this information. We go back and forth. Some of the issues our littles are dealing with is beyond what they need to. And I am not being overly protective, which as a parent I feel we should be protective, but issues their age should not have to experience. And the way the school encourages them using technology...anyway i wont vent HA!Thanks for this info.

I believe in Christianity as I believe in the sun: not only because I see it, but by it I see everything else. -C.S. Lewis

Good to see so many other homeschoolers here! I graduated a few years ago; I was homeschooled all the way! That's actually getting rarer at least where I live; you find families where half the kids are public schooled and the others are homeschooled. Some people just give up and put their kids back in. (Not a great idea, according to most of those who've done it!) I'm not surprised that Narniaweb attracts homeschoolers; has there ever been a poll to see what percentage of Narniawebbers are or were homeschooled/homeschooling? (I'm guessing like at least 50%)!

I would imagine that of those still here on the forum, 50% would be an accurate guess. I am a product of the public school system, and honestly, my K-5th grade and then 10-12th were quite positive. That middle bit there though... And I'm not sure public school was to blame for it.

But that's besides the point. I'm very happy to be homeschooling my kids now, and I'm very happy that we're finding some people that we're able to spend time with, so my poor kids are not stuck with just their boring mom all the time.

One of the things that's very ingrained in me though, because of my public school background, are days on and off of teaching. I want to match what public school kids do just because that's the way I've always done it. However, I'm learning. We're taking a few days off this week to do some fun Halloween crafts and to give my kids a break. In the future I'm hoping this will be the time to create our own Halloween costumes. I bought them this year.

Hey all!! As a homeschool graduate (all the way through high school) I'm excited to find this topic. I knew homeschoolers are well-represented here on NWeb but it's neat to see just how many of us there are, and hear others' experiences.

fantasia_kitty wrote:Here's a question for you homeschoolers. Did you learn cursive? And at what approximate age did you learn?

Myself (the oldest) and the next three siblings were all taught cursive. I was about eleven or twelve when we started, the others were ten and nine. My mom just used little flashcards that had all the letters, and basically taught us as if she were teaching the alphabet all over again. Lots of practice writing the different shapes. The only different thing (which I'd recommend highly) was that she had us start keeping journals at the same time, which had to be written in cursive. Initially she'd grade our penmanship and spelling every day, but then as we got more interested in writing and started to want privacy in our journaling, she said she'd let it be our personal writing as long as we kept on in cursive. So I still journal, and in cursive, to this day. The next siblings have mostly dropped the ball journaling-wise but still know how to read and write in cursive. The younger ones never did learn at all though.

Lady Haleth wrote: I would recommend Holling Clancy Holling's books, (Minn of the Mississippi, Seabird and Pagoo, were the ones we had).

Oh yes!!! Pagoo and Paddle-to-the-Sea are big favorites. Very much worth checking out.

Other books my family really liked and learned from were the Christian Heritage series (by Nancy Rue), which is really several different series of chapter books for (I think?) middle-school-age readers. Each tells the story of a brother and sister growing up at a different time in American history. The first series is The Salem Years, followed by The Williamsburg Years, The Charleston Years, etc. Thinking about it now I would almost describe them as a unisex and Christian version of the American Girl books. Also they come with a teacher's guide that has assignments and crafts. The series was my first introduction to historical fiction.

Other curricula we used were the Veritas Press history sets, Saxon Math, and Shirley English.

Cleander wrote:I'm not surprised that Narniaweb attracts homeschoolers; has there ever been a poll to see what percentage of Narniawebbers are or were homeschooled/homeschooling? (I'm guessing like at least 50%)!

After some observation, I may have to amend my above statement. While that's likely true from back in the old days of this site, the vast majority now I think have at least been homeschooled for some of the time.

Adeona wrote:Other books my family really liked and learned from were the Christian Heritage series (by Nancy Rue), which is really several different series of chapter books for (I think?) middle-school-age readers.

I'll have to keep those in mind. They sound interesting.

This was an interesting week. I lost my voice thanks to a virus. All of my homeschooling mom friends told me to take a few days off (whole point of homeschool right? flexible schedule?) but I powered through as I knew exactly where I wanted to end the curriculum before Thanksgiving and then again before Christmas and I just didn't have a lot of flexibility. I found it funny anyways.

Kansas requires 186 days of school, my curriculum was hitting around 170 days, and after a quick google, it looked like Unit Studies were the way to go. I thought it would be fun to do a unit study on Christmas, so that's what I've been working on creating. I found a freebie series on the symbols of Christmas and I'm using that as my base and building it from there (it's still pretty simple). One of the books I'm reading to my kiddos is (wait for it) The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe!!! Yes.... finally, the NarniaWeb admin is FINALLY introducing her kids to Narnia. The other I finally picked out is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever which I read for the first time this weekend and just loved! I ran into a problem though because I was crying through most of the last chapter and I can't read while crying. So... thanks to being sick, my fellow mom friends pointed out the wonders of YouTube audiobooks, and I discovered that Pageant has been read online, so i can just play it for the kids and not have to worry about blubbering through the end of the book.

Adeona wrote:Other books my family really liked and learned from were the Christian Heritage series (by Nancy Rue), which is really several different series of chapter books for (I think?) middle-school-age readers. Each tells the story of a brother and sister growing up at a different time in American history.

I am so glad you recommend those books, Adeona. Our library systems has quite a few of them and the siblings are going to need books to read during Christmas break, these will be perfect for the middle kids.

My siblings love listening to audiobooks, my Mom especially appreciates when the younger kids listen to Narnia 'cause then she doesn't have to read it to them (she's not a fan of fantasy).

Here's a question for all you homeschoolers. Were you or any of your siblings considered (gonna throw out a public school term here) gifted? And if so, how did your parents/teachers handle that? Was there anything special to do? Did you just go along at a faster pace? Did you do any extra, additional activites? Graduate early? Etc etc.

And did any of you do year-round homeschool? And if so, how did you do it?

I went to public school until most of second grade and was considered gifted there. Having said that, once we shifted to homeschooling, I think we largely threw out the old labels and just learned at our own pace. I think the idea of “grades” corresponding to years can be (to some degree) thrown out when homeschooling. Parents can customize. I hear the important thing is not to teach the child what to think, but how to think. Once you reach that point, I’d expect they start educating themselves.

@Movie Aristotle, absolutely agree with regards to labeling. I guess I was asking because one of the number one reasons I hear of children being pulled out of public school and taught at home is because of some kind of learning disability or special need. But there's an ever growing group of people who are realizing that their gifted kids are thriving in a homeschool setting instead of being stuck in school where they're held back by their peers. That's just the way it works out when everyone is stuck together by grade rather than skill. And so, as a result, I was wonder if there are any resources out there for homeschooling kids that are well above their "public school grade" or if you just teach to their level and not worry about any kind of label?

fk, I'm not sure if I would have been labeled "gifted", but I definitely didn't find school a challenge the same way as some of my friends and siblings did. I basically started a year ahead in math and my mom let me do...fourth or fifth grade of all the rest of my subjects over the corresponding summer so that I started that fall with everything at the same grade-level. So, I did technically graduate a year early - but still with most of my friends. I also checked with my mom and she said that, at a certain point, she just kept adding curriculum classes (such as accounting, home economics, computer programming, etc.) and let me work through them at my own pace until I finished (which usually didn't take the full year). I actually hadn't realized that was what she was doing until she said that, but it does explain why I had a bunch of classes my sisters didn't. But this did give me the opportunity to study some things I found really interesting and wouldn't have necessarily been able to study otherwise (such as Scottish history). Also, she said she would've put me in more college classes in high school, but I ran up against a lower age limit.

I know that several of my friends would've been called gifted growing up and their parents mostly handled it by either adding classes or giving them more and more challenging classes.

My mom also mentioned, when we were younger, letting us do some things at our own pace and then just adding in and expanding extracurricular activities (art, music, PE, etc.). Also, we had a lot of free reading time, I think.

"You know, if you put enough pressure on coal it turns to pearls.""No, it doesn't."